Monday, June 13, 2011

Baked Spaghetti {Spasagna}

Is it spaghetti? Is it lasagna? It's Spasagna! Sometimes the meals I make are inspired by my favorite restaurant foods. If you've ever been to a Cheddar's restaurant then this will be a familiar dish to you. If you've never heard of it, well, it's about time you do. Basically, it is cooked spaghetti noodles tossed with alfredo sauce, baked in the oven, and then topped with a meaty red sauce. After I tasted this years ago, I knew I had to recreate a version of it at home. Now, you will never hear me say that something tastes exactly like it does in a restaurant. Because the truth is, I can never get anything exactly like it is in the restaurant. But I can come close sometimes and I think the end result of this one turns out pretty darn good, even if it isn't an exact match.For this recipe, I've used some convenience foods to save time (and dishes!). But if you have the time and don't mind dirtying up a few more pots, you can definitely have fun with this recipe by making your own alfredo sauce and meat sauce from scratch.

Ingredients:

1 (26 oz) Jar of your favorite Spaghetti Sauce

1 (16 oz.) Jar Garlic Alfredo Sauce

1 lb. spaghetti noodles

1 pound of ground beef

2 cups shredded mozzarella

1/2 cup milk (2% or higher)

1 tsp. dried oregano

1 tsp. dried parsley

I love the Garlic flavored Alfredo sauces. Also, I had already dumped the cheese into the bowl when I remembered to take a picture. Bad food blogger! (not pictured: milk, oregano & parsley)

Add cooked and drained spaghetti noodles and toss to coat them completely.

Place entire mixture into baking dish

Cover with aluminum foil and bake for about 30 minutes.

While it cooks, start browning your ground beef in a medium sauce pan. Once beef is brown and crumbled, drain well to remove excess grease. Over low heat add spaghetti sauce and mix. Put cover over sauce pan and allow the mixture to keep warm until pasta is ready.

After pasta is finished cooking, remove foil and allow to cool for 8-10 minutes.

Unless you are completely impatient like me. Then you just cut out a slice and pour spaghetti sauce mixture on top, sprinkle with a bit of Parmesan cheese, if you like, and then dig in. I will warn you, if you don't allow the mixture to cool a bit before slicing, it can get just a bit runny on you (see below picture) but the taste is still fantastic!

Cook's Notes: If you like a lot of red sauce, you may want to purchase two jars.

We have a Cheddars on the other side of the freeway but I'm partial to Cracker Barrel. I really need to be more adventurous when dining out. Haha! This recipe title reminded me of the first time I heard of spaghetti tacos thanks to a show called iCarly. This dish looks delicious no matter what it's called. Yummy!

My whole family, myself included LOVEEE any kind of pasta that you get to mix Alfredo AND meat sauce. I first started eating the 2 mixed together when I was pregnant with CHloe...my tummy couldn't handle straight red/meat sauce on spaghetti, but I would crave it like mad. So, at Olive Garden, I would order a bowl of spaghetti with 1/2 Alfredo and 1/2 meat sauce. They always thought I was nuts-o, but you never want to deny a preggo. Long story short, I cannot WAIT to make this, I already know we would LOVE it!

I'm book marking this one for sure. I think I'll take the long route though and do the Alfredo sauce(since my husband is a sucker for it) and maybe change up the beef for ground Turkey. I'm so excited about this, can you tell?? Thanks for sharing! luvs

I love anything with meat sauce and this looks great Brandie! When one of my boys were small, he could never pronounce lasagna..He would call it zalagna! - When I saw the title of this recipe it reminded me of that! :o)

Brandie, I wanted to say thanks again for the support on my "decision."

I sometimes like to make a lasagna using spaghettu noodles and thought that's what this was at first but was pleasantly surprised to see that it isn't. I love everything that is in it. Especially the Alfredo sauce. My family would love this!

How have I missed this on the Cheddar's menu?! Actually, we're quite new to Cheddar's - we just got one in the town next to us and that place is packed 24/7! But we really like going there. Hhhmmm ... I think I'll have to look this dish up! Your version looks delicious, and I bet your version, even if it isn't *exactly* like the restaurant's dish tastes pretty darn good! :)

My word, this is my kind of dish! Ingenious, but simple. Can't say I've come across a dish like it, but I think restaurants in the east have something going on that I need to check out. Thank you Brandie for sending this recipe out west.

I made this recipe last week for a Pampered Chef party that I hosted last week. Everyone loved it and I even had a little left for my husband to try. I would make this again!! I found your blog though a post by Pillsbury. I am so happy to have found your blog and the great recipes!

Thank you so much to those of you who have come back to comment on how much you enjoyed it. It really warms my heart to know y'all are making this food and enjoying it. Or else I wouldn't be doing this blog! So it is so nice to hear - thank you!

I am coming over from Friday Favorite Finds via Feed My Family. I have printed this out and think that it will be dinner tomorrow night. I may, however, use Italian sausage instead of the ground beef. It look delicious.

Well of course just because I wanted to try this, I didn't have enough spaghetti, and of course, the only shred cheese I had was cheddar,but I did it anyway. I used shell macaroni. I also made my own spaghetti sauce. It was really good this way. Can hardly wait to try it with all the correct ingredients!!!

I'm making this tonight for dinner! I'm wondering, can I top the entire casserole with the spaghetti sauce as opposed to topping each individual piece? I was thinking I could top it with the sauce and then another layer of cheese after the initial 30 minutes and then bake for an additional ten? Any thoughts?!

Hi there! I don't see why you couldn't do that. We just love a lot of red sauce on our individual pieces. Also, when you bake it all together, the red sauce tends to seep down in with the alfredo. If you're okay with that - then go for it! :) You can never have too much cheese either!

I make something very similar. I am going to try the alfredo sauce tho...sounds delish!

What I do, is brown ground beef and mild Italian Sausage together for extra flavor, drain well and then cook in the fav red sauce.

Cook noodles. While the noodles are cooking, I mix together Ricotta Cheese,Parmesan & Mozzerella Cheese, egg, parsley flakes, a pinch of salt and pepper.

Spray a 9X13 pan, put noodles in the bottom, spread the cheese mix on top of the noodles, then put the sauce mix on top, cover with more cheese and bake in the oven for 30 min covered. Pull the foil and bake another 10 min. Let sit for 10 min before serving.

Yes, it can be frozen. I do that alot and make up smaller batches to give to friends who have just had babies, people that have been sick or had a death in the family. I use foil pans for those instances then the family doesn't have to worry about getting a dish back to me.

Hi Jady! Thank you so much for letting me know how it turned out with the spaghetti squash!! that is really good to know that you had good results too. I get asked about different types of squash on occasion so it's good to know you liked it with this recipe!!

Yum! This is similar to the Greek lasagne dish called pastizio, they use long ziti which is like macaronis as long as spaghetti! Thank you my sister raved about how her family loved this dish and she sent me the link!

Hi! Just commenting to tell you I found your blog yesterday while looking for a bacon-wrapped brats recipe (which turned out great) and tonight I made this spasagna which was also delicious. And next I'm gonna make Coca Cola cake! Your blog is ideal for someone like me who is not totally inept in the kitchen but not into being very fancy either (I can't be cooking elaborate meals cause I have picky eaters in the house). So thanks for doing what you do here!

I would have loved to have made this with Alfredo sauce, but the rest of my family isn't too fond of it. So instead I mixed the spaghetti noodles with my usual lasagna ingredients (ricotta, egg, grated parmesan, mozzarella, garlic, salt and pepper), poured the meat sauce on with some more mozzarella sprinkled on top and baked. It was so yummy! My family commented that they liked it better than traditional lasagna!

This was a HUGE hit at my house and very easy to make. I have to do gluten free so I used Quinoa Fettucine noodles and they held up really well if I cooked them al dente. This recipe adapted to gluten free really nicely. Thank you so much.

YES! I made it the other day and it was absolutely fabulous!! I used 1% milk(that's what we drink)Light Alfredo sauce, Jimmy Dean turkey sausage crumbles. While the alfredo spaghetti mixture was cooking, I just warmed the turkey crumbles up in the marinara sauce. When the spaghetti was done, I poured the marinara meat mixture on top, sprinkled on Reduced Fat grated Parmesan Cheese and popped it back in the oven for another 5 minutes. Best of both worlds. I love spaghetti and hubby loves alfredo. We were all happy!!!

I made this last night and it was really good! I'm always looking to cook different things and you have plenty of recipes I want to try, I'm like a kid in a candy store. Thank you for this fabulous blog!

This sound so god Can't wait to try it. I cook for my 90 year old mother and 65 year old brother every night for dinner and I use a lot of your recipes. I love the recipe box feature so I can keep them all together and get them fast.

I have a confession! We love this recipe. I know we make it at least once a month if not twice sometimes three times! I like to switch up the meat. I leave everything else the same. I love using Turkey sausage. I have shared this with about a million people! In fact it's in my oven right now!

Okay, YUM! This was really yummy tonight and a GREAT hit. I am going to try this in a number of variations including with cheddar and alfredo in the bottom and maybe manwich with hamburger on top? That sounds good! Thanks for sharing yummy, family-friendly recipes.